Big Ten QBs Morelli, Henne share history

Anthony Morelli and Chad Henne were together again in Chicago last week, albeit at separate tables.

The two former star high school quarterbacks from Pennsylvania, who on that day sat doing interviews as part of Big Ten Football Media Days, have been linked since their pre-college days.

Henne, from Wilson High School in the eastern part of the state, gave a verbal commitment to Penn State, then opted instead for Michigan.

"It would go back and forth," Henne said of his choice of Penn State. "Then, at the last second, (Michigan quarterbacks coach) Scot Loeffler came down and worked a camp for my coach. Right there and then I just fell for his system and how he coached me."

Morelli, a Penn Hills standout who had given a verbal to Pitt, later changed his mind in favor of Penn State.

They both played for Pennsylvania vs. Ohio in the 2004 Big 33 game, with Henne starting. Morelli inherited a 14-3 deficit in the second quarter, but rallied his team to a 17-14 lead, throwing for 150 yards in the quarter.

Morelli didn't play again until the fourth quarter. Henne finished the game completing just 5 of 14 passes for 102 yards. At the time, it rankled Morelli that twice -- at the end of the first half and late in the fourth quarter -- Henne was inserted for pivotal scoring opportunities and twice failed to deliver.

"I was real frustrated," Morelli said at the time.

That Big 33 game was recalled last year, when Henne and Morelli faced each other for the first time as starting college quarterbacks. Henne's Michigan team won, 17-10. Morelli was knocked from the game with a concussion early in the third quarter, after throwing what turned out to be a 22-yard completion to Derrick Williams.

Morelli didn't pal around with Henne in Chicago, but he downplayed talk of a continuing rivalry between the two, who this week are in the midst of preseason camps.

"I don't even know where it started or how it started or what's going on with it," Morelli said. "I have no problems with him and I don't think he has any problems with me. He's a great quarterback. We both are trying to win football games and move on to the next level. We kind of don't really compete against each other. We compete against each other's defenses to win football games."

Henne, whose Michigan team hosts Penn State and Morelli on Sept. 22, also spoke of a distant, but interested, relationship.

"I don't have contact with him, but of course if I get a chance I watch the game," said Henne, who has started since his freshman year. "It's kind of hard. It's like you're a Penn State fan at heart because you're a Pennsylvania kid. But, obviously, they're a competitor with you and you compete against them every year."

Henne was on the Penn State campus recently for the graduation of his girlfriend's brother and he was treated well, a departure from last season's game at Beaver Stadium.

"They were pretty cruel," Henne said of the game crowd. "But it's expected."

Led by Henne and others, including tailback Mike Hart, Michigan was the media's preseason pick to win the Big Ten. There is pressure on Henne and his senior teammates to live up to that, as well as beat Ohio State and win a bowl game, things Henne has yet to accomplish in his three previous seasons as the starter.

Penn State was not included in the top three conference picks. Morelli's senior season looms as a quest for team and personal success, and to prove that preseason prediction wrong. That game at Michigan looms as significant on all counts.

"That poll doesn't matter," Morelli said. "We have to play the football games to decide who's one through three."